1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to information processing and, more particularly, to an information processing apparatus, a method for controlling the information processing apparatus, and a control program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, from the viewpoint of environmental protection, electronic equipment has been required to reduce power consumption. In order to realize this, in an information processing apparatus, a method is adopted which turns off a power source of respective modules such as a hard disk drive (HDD) (storage unit) in the apparatus as needed to shift to a power saving mode (sleep mode). If only power consumption is to be suppressed, the power source of the respective modules may be continuously turned off when its operation is unnecessary.
However, the larger a number of the ON-OFF times (one ON-OFF time consists of one ON time and one OFF time) of the HDD, the higher the possibility of break-down of the device. In other words, when ON-OFF of the HDD is frequently repeated, the HDD breaks down before the product lifetime of the information processing apparatus elapses. Thus, as a result, the possibility that the information processing apparatus cannot be used is increased.
Concerning this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-186426 discusses a method for turning off the power source of a HDD after processing of a job necessary for start of the HDD has been completed and a preset waiting time has elapsed. In the invention discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-186426, the product lifetime of an apparatus is divided by a number of ON-OFF times guaranteed by the HDD and an obtained value is set as a waiting time.
However, in the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-186426, the power source of the HDD is always turned off after the job has been processed and a fixed waiting time has elapsed. In that case, there have been the following problems.
When jobs (printing, reading, facsimile, inquiry about device information via network, etc.) have been input, the information processing apparatus turns on the power source of the HDD. Among these, particularly, an inquiry about device information by a network may frequently occur in a short time. Accordingly, if the job of the inquiry about device information by the network is handled similarly to other jobs to set awaiting time, the waiting time needs to be set long.
Further, in the information processing apparatus, a new waiting time is frequently set each time a job is input. In this case, if input of a job and a setting of a new waiting time are repeated while the set waiting time is elapsing, it may become difficult to turn off the power source of the HDD.